Ben Stovall Blog

Tag: reviews

  • Revisiting the Last of Us Part II

    Revisiting the Last of Us Part II

    In June of 2020, a sequel many never thought would come released on the Playstation 4. When the news of a new entry in the Last of Us world was first announced, I was tentative. The first game ended so well, and I wasn’t sure how a direct sequel would affect the ambiguous and emotional ending between Joel and Ellie. But, one day, I watched Grounded: The Making of the Last of Us; I saw the care and thought and effort that was poured into the game, and I felt assured that the team behind the game wouldn’t rush headlong into anything without that same level of love.

    I ended up with an unfortunately uncommon experience with the game. As anticipated as its release came, in the last few weeks before its debut, there was a massive leak. Major story elements were laid bare as walls of text on the internet. Many people had their experience with this game poisoned by these leaks. I, oblivious to their existence entirely, avoided these spoilers and managed to meet the story where it asked to be met.

    The Last of Us Part II was every bit the sequel the first game deserved. For three consecutive days, I was enthralled by the game. I barely did anything else at all. When I was in the last section of the game, my then-roommate-who-was-actually-just-moving-out came by to gather some of his things, and found me there in the living room. He asked how I was liking the game, and when I said it was fantastic, I knew he’d expected me to have the opinion that was circulating on the internet already.

    I never managed to find any clarity about why people were mad about this game when it released. There were some comments that were unmasked homo- and transphobia, but the criticism was so mainstream it didn’t seem like that could be the cornerstone to the wider reaction. There were people that dismissed the story as basic and overbearing, but those comments were rarely insightful about what the story was saying or the details of the plot. There were people who criticized the story structure, and I will admit it is unusual in its shape, but that is not at all without purpose.

    Revisiting the game, examining where the discourse online has shifted in the nearly three years since its release – that brought all these criticisms back to mind. And, I didn’t have a blog back then, so I’m going to talk about it now. This is my space after all, I get to do whatever the hell I want with it.

    Spoilers ahead – and since this game is getting adapted, I sincerely recommend disengaging with this post if you haven’t experienced the story before. Maybe come back in a couple years, or give the game a go: but just as this story was damaged by the leaks before its release, this story is best experienced as the authors intended. Do not let me ruin it for you.

    Here we go.

    A Quick Rundown of Events

    As mentioned, there’s been a lot said about the narrative structure of this game. And, well, it is unusual. Everything carries on at a pretty normal clip, then you reach the moment you’ve been anticipating for a dozen hours. Abby and Ellie finally meet again, there’s a gun at-the-ready and–hard stop. Flashback.

    You’re Abby now. She’s plagued by nightmares about her father’s death. It’s three days ago. You’ve got practically the same amount of game ahead of you as behind you, just to get back to where you just were, to see what happens next.

    Also, you hate Abby. Maybe you don’t want to play as her, but it’s the only way forward. So, you keep going. You see Abby’s struggles, see the horror she puts up with. We see that vengeance didn’t bring her peace, but opening herself up and helping a pair of strangers – that does. Like Joel in the game before, a relationship with a child brings Abby back in touch with her humanity, and many of us are able to look beyond the worst things she’s ever done and forgive her.

    Then we get slammed with the discovery of the carnage Ellie left in her wake. And we know why Abby would want to get revenge again. There you are, back at the theater.

    You fight Ellie as Abby, and the fight only ends one way: Abby victorious, but sparing Ellie and Dina because of Lev, because of wanting to be better for Lev.

    Some time passes, and we see Ellie and Dina on a farm. On the surface, it looks like it’s over. Like Ellie is past it all and has found some peace. But, she hasn’t. She’s plagued with nightmares about her father’s death. She’s barely human – not eating, not sleeping. To her, it doesn’t seem like anything other than the vengeance denied to her will bring her peace. And she abandons her happy ending because this character is just too human for it all to end perfectly.

    She hunts Abby down across-country, one last time. She fights through a stronghold of some of the worst scum that humanity has become since the infection: the Rattlers. People who use the infected to torture slaves for their own amusement. It’s hell fighting through them and Ellie is horribly wounded the whole time, and you finally find Abby crucified in their camp with Lev for trying to escape. She’s a shell of her former self, withered and weak, but she’s alive. You cut her down and she immediately goes to Lev and gets him down, carrying him down to some boats nearby. Ellie follows, and she seems so disconnected. Part of her knows how pointless it all would be. They’re at these two boats, Ellie has a flash of memory, and by threatening Lev she forces Abby to fight her.

    And she wins.

    But she doesn’t kill Abby, and people were furious.

    Empathy on Hardmode

    This game did not make it easy for itself. So many critics of the game think it would be better for the experience if you know who Abby is and why she wants to kill Joel before she does. But this team knew what they were doing. They put it out in front: this is Abby. For whatever reason, she wants to kill your favorite character, and she does. Also, we’re going to make you play as her.

    They bury this lead to set the player so firmly against Abby, to help the player feel as Ellie feels for the adventure, then drop you into her shoes halfway through the game. They show you who Abby is: compassionate, caring, tough as all hell, and willing to lose everything she has to rescue one kid.

    The Last of Us challenges its player to forgive Abby after you watch her do the worst thing she’s ever done. By the end of the game, the literal last thing I wanted to see was for Ellie to kill Abby. I don’t imagine it’s an uncommon experience for people to stop interacting with the button prompt in that last fight and die at least once, just to be certain that the game won’t let you stop and choose. They set everything against themselves, and still they pulled it off. At least, they did for me.

    The Purpose of the Rattlers

    Another specific criticism I wanted to pick at here – the Rattlers and Santa Barbara. There’s been some people that say the last level of the game feels “tacked on.” It’s in a different state with so many people we’ve never seen or cared about before, just to show the lengths that Ellie’s gone to pursuing Abby? No, that’s too dismissive, I think. This team does everything they do with deliberation.

    So, the Rattlers. Slavers that have infected tied up, allowing their prisoners to be bitten and turned for their amusement. The worst of the worst that humanity has to offer in this world. These people are so disconnected from their humanity, that it’s maybe the first-and-only time in the game that you can engage in the gunplay without any remorse. That’s got value for sure, this game’s run-and-gun hide-and-seek is a blast, but even that’s not quite there.

    I think the Rattlers are here as a warning. They weaponize the infected, like Ellie does throughout the game. If Ellie killed Abby, it wouldn’t have brought her peace. She might’ve lost her ability for empathy living with that pain. I don’t think she’d ever have been as bad as they were, but I don’t think she would have recovered, not into the girl we knew.

    Where Things Are Now

    I spent time scrolling through threads on the Last of Us subreddit. There’s posts of people who’ve come to the game recently and were blown away by it, comments from people saying the game’s finally getting the recognition it deserves, counter-criticism to some of the most popular “proposed changes” essays.

    Reception has changed, because this game is truly incredible. It’s so affecting and challenging, so moving. A common sentiment I’ve seen reads, “It’s the best game I’ve played that I can never play again.” And, I guess if you value replayability in games, that’s sad to hear. But the journey experienced even once was worthwhile and one of the best games I’ve ever played.

    The reception of the game at launch was unforgiving. People wanted to hate this game because it wasn’t giving them what they thought they wanted. Years on, however, people see the value in the game as it is. People nowadays are willing to meet the game where it’s asking to be met, and that’s all you really need to do.

    As always, thank you for reading. See you again soon.

  • The Last of Us: An Incredible Adaptation

    The Last of Us: An Incredible Adaptation

    There are few games whose stories were as moving and affecting as the Last of Us, and it’s no surprise to its many fans how well this adaptation landed. The gameplay is good, but the meat and potatoes of this game was always its narrative. So, despite the storied history of failed video game adaptations, I and many others were excited for this show for a long time.

    I can certainly say I wasn’t disappointed.

    Changes Made for the Better

    I’ve talked before in this blog about how adaptation often necessitates change – going from one medium to another requires work. Things that are fun to play through might get stale to watch. Something that reads well might be hard to present in a way that captures the attention of the audience. Here, the creative team deviated from the game in several places (and held fast to the game in others), but never did I feel like what they were doing wasn’t the right move for the show.

    Bill and Frank receiving practically their own episode devoted to their lives together made perfect sense for the show over the gameplay sections involving their story. Exploring a booby-trapped town and battling infected was fun to play through, but I don’t think it would’ve worked as well as a viewing experience – certainly not as well as what we did get. Sam being deaf and needing Henry’s protection even more was inspired; Druckmann himself was frustrated he hadn’t thought of it.

    Every moment of this show oozed with the respect and love the original story deserved from the team behind it. Craig Mazin in the “Behind the Episode” segments spoke unabashedly about his love for the game. More than anything else, I think that care and devotion to the original really brought the best things forward while providing them the room to make changes and come out the better for it. As a result, we have two incredible stories that exist in a shared space, but their differences remain and give them each a different flavor. If you prefer a show, the series is excellent; if you love an interactive experience, the game is there for you.

    All Killer, No Filler

    There’s been a few criticisms online about the third and seventh episodes in the series. Some derided them as filler: pointless excursions that did nothing to further the story present. I read comments from users on Reddit that posited that all flashbacks are bad for media, in any story – that stories told nonlinearly are just inherently poorly written (which, ridiculous).

    Never mind that this whole thing is just outright about the characters within it. The journey across the country is just the backdrop for Ellie and Joel to come to find family in one another. Each obstacle they encounter and overcome isn’t them battling against FEDRA or learning more about the fireflies – it’s just an exploration of the world, how these characters behave within it, and, most importantly, how that changes while they’re orbiting around each other.

    An interesting facet of this criticism is that both of these episodes featured homosexual romance, and they received the harshest response. But, that doesn’t have anything to do with it, right?

    History Repeating

    For years after people reached the credits on the Last of Us, there were debates about the ending. This story is challenging. It is upfront and honest about these characters, about how human they are. Everyone knows that a parent will do anything to protect their child, and this story doesn’t shy away from it. It doesn’t give us an out.

    Joel commits an atrocity for Ellie. He refuses to let her die, to lose her, even though it will allow humanity to overcome cordyceps. And, playing the game, I was with him. I wasn’t going to let them kill Ellie. In the game, it’s a final shootout and run-and-gun, a finale and set piece. In the show, it is the most violence we get on screen between humans.

    To me, the show is even less ambiguous about whether the cure will work than the game. It is presented as a certainty. Yet, just as with the game a decade ago, people cast doubts about its effectiveness so that Joel’s actions can be justifiable. And, the fact of the matter is, that what Joel does is horrific, but many people would do the same.

    This story challenges us to recognize that. To accept that piece of human nature, what love can drive us to do. To behave like the cure is uncertain is to attempt to disengage with the question, to create a moral justification for the mundane horror humankind is capable of. And it’s interesting to see that happening again in the wake of the finale.

    Suffice it to say that I loved the show and I’m looking forward for more. A few weeks ago, the series inspired me to revisit the game’s sequel, and my next post will be about that experience. As always, thank you for reading. When you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light.